Club Jetstar – Should You Sign Up For Jetstar’s Revamped Membership Programme?

Jetstar has just revamped their membership programme – Club Jetstar – yesterday. While the programme does not allow you to earn points, members get to enjoy exclusive member fares, early access to the biggest sale events as well as 20% discount on baggage and seat selection.

The membership programme does not come free. There is a $48 joining fee. On top of that, there is an annual membership fee of $49 which Jetstar is waiving for the first year.

So is the programme worth it? Let’s take a closer look by breaking down the key benefits:

Exclusive Member Fares

Jetstar mentions that members get access to exclusive member-only fares. While I am usually skeptical on whether these exclusive fares are indeed cheaper, I did a quick check in the website. Jetstar publishes its Club Jetstar members rate (which changes from time to time) so it’s pretty transparent in that aspect. For contrast, you can easily compare this to their promotional rates which are available here.

I did a quick scan through and most routes under the membership fare are about $5 to $8 cheaper (per sector). Assuming you take a round trip flight with Jetstar, that translates to savings of about $10 to $15. Fair enough. Do note that the member fares are only applicable for a booking of up to 5 persons (yourself plus 4 other people). You can easily break-even when booking as a group.

This being said, the promotional rates I am comparing it to are not the Friday Frenzy rates. Jetstar runs these promotions on most Fridays when fares drop markedly lower. Promo seats are pretty limited but if you manage to score one, it may end up being the same price as the Club Jetstar fares. The catch is the Friday Frenzy promotions are usually for a limited time (i.e. 8am to 5pm on Fridays) so if flexibility is important to you, then the Club Jetstar fares may be useful.

Early Access to Sale Events

I am assuming this might mean early access to promotional events like Friday Frenzy. If that is the case, then that could be a good reason for membership. Assuming you take Jetstar for one round trip flight or two and manage to score one of the Friday Frenzy deals due to your early access, the savings could be huge and could be enough to wipe out the membership fee for Club Jetstar. As of now, they don’t say exactly what kind of lead time members will get.

20% discount on baggage and seat selection

It’s not much – 20% discount in baggage and seat selection – would translate to about $5 to $10 in savings. Still it’s something good to have and Jetstar does say that the discount for members will be applicable to all flights departing from Singapore.

Partner Offers

Not sure if this list is going to expand. For now, Club Jetstar is offering 5% discount for Agoda hotel bookings and 10% off travel insurance. You could get a higher discount with cashback sites like Shopback or Topcashback while some credit cards throw in discounts as well for Agoda bookings from time to time so I don’t think this benefit is as enticing. However, I do note that in other countries like Australia, Club Jetstar members get more partner offers so it also depends on what kind of partners they are able to add in the future.

So is Club Jetstar worth signing up for?

• If you foresee yourself flying with Jetstar a couple of times in a year and don’t want to be restricted to the Friday Frenzy and special sales, it can make sense to sign up for Club Jetstar. The thing I like about them is that they are transparent in publishing a members only rate and a public promotional rate so you know exactly how much you are saving with the membership.
• In my view, the main reason to sign up is for earlier access to the deals before the public. This is of course subject to the lead time members will get but the savings could potentially be more than enough to break-even on the membership fee with just one booking.
• The 20% discount on baggage or seat selection is good to have but probably won’t be your main reason for signing up.